Home Again

Well, that was a roller-coaster of a weekend.

Friday afternoon, I got word that my grandmother had been sent back to the hospital with oxygen deprivation issues; that evening, it turned out that she'd had another, much larger heart attack (though whether the oxygen issues were a cause or an effect, we don't know).

Saturday was a fairly quiet day, and then that afternoon we went over to my parents' for a birthday dinner (covering Sam's, Penny's, Mom's, and John's birthdays). We talked a little about Grandmom, of course: she was stable, but the doctors were recommending hospice care, which means they don't expect her to live another six months.

I started to ask about funeral plans, and basically got cut off: there won't be a funeral or memorial service. Grandmom doesn't have any friends in Georgia, so the only mourners there are the family. There are only a small handful of her old friends left in Texas, too. So there will probably be a family gathering at some point, and there will probably be some personal visits when her ashes are taken back to Texas to be interred with Grandad's. But no real service, and no dates are fixed.

Anyway, that whole conversation only took about half an hour, and the rest of the evening was great. The kids were well-behaved, and everyone had a good time.

Sunday evening was an insane. We met some friends and friends-of-friends for dinner at a medium-posh restaurant. I was a little concerned about the kids' behavior, but they were amazing, actually. I ate wonderful food and talked to friendly people and generally had a fantastic time. When we got home, there was a message on the phone from Dad, so I called back and learned that Grandmom had only been awake for about five minutes total all day Saturday, and hadn't woken up Sunday at all. Dad and Mom were making plans to drive down to Atlanta to await the end and the inevitable paperwork. Well... hell. And when I hung up and sat down at the computer, still processing that, I found I'd received a really wonderful and complimentary comment post on my writing blog. (My first fan mail from someone I didn't already know!) And then Penny's blood sugars were insane (whoo, french fries and other rich, carby foods!) and between that and all the other emotional rubber-banding, I kind of fell apart. Poor Matt.

Monday, we took the kids to the Virginia Living Museum. It was the last day of their dinosaur exhibit, and we thought the kids would enjoy that. Alas, the exhibit was... slightly lame, being all animatronic dinosaurs and not real skeletons, and they kind of frightened Alex. But he was very enthusiastic about much of the rest of the museum. He had a real obsession with turtles going, in fact. Penny was thrilled about every little thing, so I don't think our trip was wasted, even if the dinosaur exhibit wasn't everything we were hoping.

Of course, Alex requires a mid-day nap, so we had to leave before we'd looked at half of what was there to see. We got about two miles down the road and then turned back to get Penny's kit that she'd left behind (we really need to find a way to make it a hands-free bag for these trips), but luckily it was right where we'd left it. So we picked up lunch and dropped by my parents' to eat, and pick up Matt's cell phone that he'd left there on Saturday.

That evening, we had Braz and Adin and Adin's kids over for dinner, and that went really well, actually. We grilled brats and hot dogs and chicken, and ate watermelon and veggies and chips and baked beans. The kids all played together -- even Alex and Henry -- so the adults actually got to talk to each other, which was awesome. The few descents into pouting or whining passed quickly (there's a joke in there somewhere about it being the grownups and not the kids, but I can't quite get there from here.)

After they left, as we were getting Penny ready for bed, Matt and I noticed some goo in the corner of Penny's eye. Which was all red from her rubbing at it. Dammitall... Sure enough, the next morning her eye was swollen and all but crusted shut from goo. No first day of school for Penny! I took her to work with me for a bit, and then took her to the doctor. Conjunctivitis (pink-eye), whee!

But it was mostly better this morning (whatever those drops were the doctor gave us worked fast) so she's in school today. She was insanely excited as I dropped her off in her classroom and snapped a quick picture. I'm working from home today, though, just in case her eye gets worse again and they decide she needs to come home.